Blows and pepper spray during a fight between doctors and police
Doctors and policemen faced clubbing, blows and shovesgovern when the doctors tried to break the fence with metal fences with which the agents tried to prevent their passage to the front of the National Palace.
Seeing that their path was blocked on a corner before Doctor Delgado Avenue, the doctors struggled with the police, who responded with baton blows and even sprayed several of them with gas.
The president of the Dominican Medical Association (CMD), Rufino Senén Caba, even fell to the pavement, as did other colleagues who were seen with soiled gowns.
🚨¡Policía vs Médicos!🥊
Se registra un intenso forcejeo en el momento en que miembros del Colegio Médico Dominicano (#CMD) realizaban una manifestación frente al #PalacioNacional en demanda de una serie de reivindicaciones. @PoliciaRD #ElNuevoDiarioRD #PoliciaNacional pic.twitter.com/rOBmfHzgyq
— El Nuevo Diario (@elnuevodiariord) July 27, 2022
A journalist and a cameraman ended up with scratches after a confrontation with a police officer.
The trade unionist summoned the members of the CMD and the specialized medical societies to a meeting tomorrow at noon to give President Luis Abinader “the answer he deserves”, after what they consider a policy of repression. Earlier, Caba threatened to call an immediate national strike if the rest of the doctors who were left behind were not allowed to pass.
The president of the CMD said that he was called to a meeting with vice president Raquel Peña, but that today he received a call canceling the commitment. At 9:00 in the morning, the Vice Presidency summoned the press to an act to inaugurate the Darío Contreras trauma hospital.
This march was the first step in a day of struggle announced last week by doctors demanding that the precariousness of public hospitals in infrastructure and lack of supplies be resolved.
They reject the alleged privatization carried out by the government by putting the administration of public health centers in the hands of volunteers, and ask for the opening of some 52 hospitals that are closed
Likewise, they demand that the pensions ordered by decree be complied with.
Private clinics also support the protests and demand that health risk managers comply with previous agreements.